Adobe Livecycle Designer equivalent for mac?

Question

Is there any software out there like Adobe Livecycle Designer for mac? ... where we can easily design pdf forms and still be compatible with Acrobat Pro.

Does anyone know if they will make it for the Mac anytime soon?

Answer 1

I haven't heard of any plans. Apple and Adobe are... at odds sometimes.

That said, there are ways to work around this with Acrobat Professional.

1. Create your form layout in Illustrator. Draw in your text fields with a .5 stoked box with a no fill box (white fill can cover up your text field content if it is above), save as a PDF and then simply open this new document into Acrobat Pro.

2. Go to the Forms > Add or Edit Fields... I wouldnt bother running "Start Form Wizard..." as in this process Acrobat wont detect text fields anyway. Start by adding textfields directly on top of the stroked boxes you've created in the AI PDF. (it may ask you to save a copy of the document in order to Extend Acrobat Features for Reader). You will now be placed in Form editing mode.

3. Add buttons, signature fields, text fields - really most of what LiveCycle Designer does. You can switch between prevewing the document and editing it very easily. You can perform limited scripting.

If you want to give reader users the power to fill and save forms from Free Reader, go to the Advanced menu and select "Extend Features in Adobe Reader..."

I know this is missing a lot of the more advanced Livecycle features, but you can do a surprisingly decent job.